


To truly know someone

by TonalModulator



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Gen, Tribunal - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21623596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonalModulator/pseuds/TonalModulator
Summary: Shortly after the events of the Daedric Plot, Vivec and Sotha Sil hang out.
Relationships: Vivec & Sotha Sil
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28
Collections: Holiday TES Fanfic Fest!





	To truly know someone

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [mournholdvacation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mournholdvacation/pseuds/mournholdvacation) in the [Holiday_TES_Fanfic_Fest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Holiday_TES_Fanfic_Fest) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Sotha Sil and Vivec, talking to each other; comparing Cities, joking around, just being, friends! (After they obtain godhood, please.)

Sotha Sil sat on the short wall outside the main gate to the Brass Fortress. None of the Apostles entering or leaving the Fortress spared him so much as a passing glance. He smiled. The disguise was working well again. All he’d had to do was replace his crown with a loose bun and cast a few simple illusions to make himself look shorter and younger, and with dark hair like he had in his Chimer days.

Another typical-looking Dunmer with shimmering blue hair slowly approached the gate with what might have passed as confidence to someone who hadn’t known hir for millennia. Seht, however, could tell that the disguised Vehk was carefully taking in the city, and looking for him.

Vehk’s eyes landed on Seht, and ze broke into a smile and ran the rest of the way to him. Seht stood up to meet his friend for a hug.

“I almost didn’t recognize you,” Vehk said.

“That is the goal,” Seht replied, regarding hir with a warm smile. “You wanted to see the City as it truly is, after all. Shall we take a walk?”

They started along the sloping path down the cliff outside the Fortress.

“Isn’t this the Radius?” Vehk asked. “I thought the Radius was inhospitable.”

Seht shrugged. “No more inhospitable than the wilderness of Morrowind-on-Nirn. Besides, watch this.”

He walked calmly up to a firepot spider that was starting to glow a burning orange. He went to one knee in front of it and whispered some calming words. The threatening glow diminished, and the spider began to bounce idly from side to side. Seht held out his hand, and the spider came up and nuzzled into it.

He motioned for Vehk to come closer. “You try. Just tell them who you are and to be calm. Speak Chimeris. They should recognize you.”

Vehk raised an eyebrow. “‘Should?’”

“What, afraid of a little fire?”

Vehk rolled hir eyes with a laugh and approached a dancing spider. It became agitated at hir approach and began to tap its feet threateningly. Crouching down near it, ze said, “ _Vehk muhr. Oufluro muhrid._ ”

As promised, the spider’s hostility vanished at hir voice. It charged up to hir and leapt into hir lap, and would have caused hir to topple backward into the oily water if Seht hadn’t noticed and sent out a telekinetic hand to catch hir in time.

“Are the kagouti going to do that too?” Vehk laughed, stroking the spider’s head-like section as it bounced back and forth.

They spent some time wandering the Radius, and then passed through the Mechanical Fundament in order to re-enter the Brass Fortress through the outlaws’ refuge, at Vehk’s insistence.

“The only true way to know a city is to understand the community of those considered criminals,” ze said.

Seht gave a brief tour of the Brass Fortress when they emerged, but he could tell Vehk was getting antsy, and so he kept it to the condensed version. Much of the Fortress was similar to last time ze had visited, anyway.

When they had seen what there was to see in the Clockwork City, Vehk grabbed Seht’s hand and said, “My place now! Change your arms.”

Seht cast another illusion to make his arms look organic, as mechanical modifications were much less common in Nirn-Above, and then Vehk recalled them to hir own city. The first thing Seht noticed was the rock in the sky.

“Baar Dau is looking a little low,” he commented quietly.

“I told you about that,” Vehk said.

“I know, but I didn’t realize just how far it had fallen.” He turned to face his friend. “Are you all right?”

Vehk ignored the question and tugged on his arm. “Come along now!”

Still holding hands, they ran past the merchants by the entrance to the city and to a door under some scaffolding. “I _may_ have had a hand in making this place easy to access without being spotted by Ordinators,” ze said as they entered the outlaws’ refuge. “It’s a bit dank, but the guilds wouldn’t have it any other way.”

As they passed through the refuge, Seht noted with amusement that Vehk was exchanging familiar nods with a few of the inhabitants. He assumed this disguise was one ze wore often to walk among them. As if to confirm his suspicions, a mer approached them with a friendly smile.

“Vilviya! I was starting to worry that you’d gotten in trouble. Who’s this?” The mer motioned to Seht.

“Ah, that’s my friend, Silvar.”

She eyed him closely. “Pleased to meet you, Silvar. You know Vivi well?”

Seht nodded politely, carefully hiding his amusement. “Oh yes, Vivi and I go way back.”

The mer nodded but made no attempt to hide the fact that she was still studying him. “You don’t look like the type we normally see down here.” She turned to Vehk with a faint smirk. “You didn’t secretly bring an Ordinator to interrupt our dealings, did you?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Vehk assured her.

She smiled. “Good. Any news from the Hall of Justice?”

“Of course,” Vehk said. Ze began rifling through pockets Seht didn’t know ze had. “It’s around here somewhere…Seht’s nipple, where did I put it?”

“Careful,” the mer teased. “Wouldn’t want you to get hauled off for blasphemy.”

Vehk laughed. “Everyone knows the Three can’t see us down here. Ah, here it is.” Ze produced a couple folded pieces of paper from a pocket somewhere inside hir shirt.

The mer took the packet and handed Vehk one of her own. “Pleasure doing business with you, as always, sera. And it was nice meeting you, Silvar.”

Seht resisted the urge to bow, instead opting for a casual nod. When they finally exited the refuge into St. Delyn’s Canton, he turned to Vehk, now hardly containing his laughter.

“Do you often swear by my nipple?”

“Nah, I was just having fun,” ze said. “You held yourself together well.”

“Barely,” Seht said. “You could have picked slightly less obvious names.”

Vehk flashed him a smile. “Where’s the fun in that?” Ze pocketed the papers hir associate had given hir.

“Information?” Seht asked.

“Yep. I feed them carefully selected intelligence on the Ordinators’ patrols, and they keep me updated on the goings-on that might otherwise be kept from us.” Ze took Seht’s hand again. “Let’s keep going!”

They exited the canton and leaned over the ledge.

“You know the Saints’ cantons, of course. _That_ one”—Vehk pointed to the canton under construction—“was commissioned by House Hlaalu to serve as their foothold in the city. I’m sure the rest of the Great Houses will follow soon enough.”

They continued through the city and up to the palace. Vehk scanned the inside of the palace for life on the way up the stairs and detected only the Buoyant Armiger on duty.

“Evening, Draynil,” ze said as they entered.

Armiger Draynil gave a subtle salute and quietly replied, “Evening, muthsera.”

“All clear?”

Draynil nodded. “All clear, muthsera.”

Vehk dropped hir disguise and nodded to Seht that he could do the same. The Armiger seemed unfazed by Vehk’s transformation, but jumped back to attention when he saw Seht’s true form.

“My sincere apologies, Muthsera Seht! I didn’t recognize you.”

Seht smiled and shook his head. “No problem at all. I would have been worried if you did.”

Vehk led Seht to hir chambers. They sat down on the cushions on the floor, and Vehk waved over two glasses and a bottle of flin to share. Ze poured the flin and handed one glass to Seht.

“So, how have you been?” ze asked.

“How have _you_ been?”

Vehk gave a quirky smile. “I asked first.”

“I know,” Seht said. “That is why I asked. I doubt you truly only wanted to see each other’s cities.”

Vehk’s smile faded and was replaced with a faraway look, and then a weaker smile. “Fair enough,” ze said. “Ever since the Daedric attack, I have been feeling diminished.”

Seht nodded understandingly. “A sentiment I share.”

“It’s as though Vivec-the-God is less, as though some of me is lost, though not to your blessed staff. Nor is it something that could be solved by a trip to the Heart.” Ze sighed and took a sip of hir drink. “We work so hard to present the people with a face of invincibility that I may have started to believe it more than I intended.”

“Such is the risk carried by those tasked with defining truth.”

“So it is. But don’t think I’ve forgotten that I asked you first. Tell me now: How are you coping, my friend?”

Seht thought for a moment. “You know that I place less emphasis on divine appearances to begin with. That said, to have a Daedric Prince breach my security measures and rip part of my soul away…”

“World-shaking.”

“To say the least.”

They were quiet for an eternity, and then Vehk looked at Seht with hir water-face, a deep sincerity in hir eyes. “Have we failed?”

Seht met Vehk’s gaze gently. “Failed at what?”

“Failed at our jobs? Failed our people? Failed to serve as worthy alternatives to the Daedra?”

“Have we failed at our jobs?” Seht began. "In a sense, yes. We damaged our face and showed weakness. Were it not for outside help, we would not have survived.

"Have we failed our people? I doubt it. They saw a threat, and they saw us overcome it. Some have lost faith, I am sure, but only those who cannot abide their living gods even facing a threat in the first place. Their faith was brittle and doomed to fail, if not now, then later. Others, the truly faithful, see only our triumph, and their faith is stronger for it.

"Have we failed to serve as worthy alternatives to the Daedra? No. The Daedra threatened to end the world. That is not a desirable trait in gods. And ultimately, we were victorious over them. Not on our own, of course, but the people will not worry over the details.

“So, have we failed? Yes and no.” He looked at Vehk again and smiled. “I am starting to sound like you.”

Vehk smiled back, but ze was still clearly preoccupied. “This isn’t the beginning of our downfall, is it?”

“No,” Seht said. “As long as we have access to the Heart, we will remain at full power. In the long run, anyway.” He studied his friend’s face. “This all troubles you deeply.”

“Of course it does,” Vehk said. “You saw Baar Dau. What if I couldn’t hold on? What if the people lost faith?”

“That would have been disastrous. Fortunately, you _did_ hold on, and the people did not lose faith.”

“But…I was so close. And you, if Nocturnal had actually gotten onto the Throne Aligned, she would have been able to unmake reality with or without Crystal-Like-Law. How are you so okay with this?”

“I am far from okay, Vehk,” he said. “We are supposed to be immortal, and yet we both could have died. That is not easy to deal with. But your hypotheticals are pointless. Things could not have turned out any other way.”

Vehk huffed with dissatisfaction.

“That does not bring you any comfort,” Seht observed.

“Not really,” ze mumbled. “What about next time? I won’t know how things will turn out until they do. Or, around then, anyway.”

“Then we will have to keep improving ourselves, our cities, and our people to make sure we can deal with whatever threatens us next. We must, and we will,” Seht said. “Does _that_ bring you comfort?”

Vehk sighed. “A little.”

After another eternity, Seht spoke again. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I am glad to have someone who understands what I went through.”

Vehk put on a face of mock offense. “You’re glad I almost got killed by Daedra?” Ze punched Seht playfully on the arm.

Seht laughed. “That was the wrong way.”

“I know.” Vehk laughed too and rested hir head on Seht’s shoulder. “I’m glad I have you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> “Vilviya” comes from “viyad” (“to learn”) and “iluvi” (“form”) — it’s Vehk’s form for learning about hir people.


End file.
